TAMPA — Perhaps the trip to Panama came at the perfect time for Derek Jeter.
Eduardo Nunez, playing shortstop Friday, was forced to leave the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Twins at George M. Steinbrenner Field an inning early after getting kicked in the left thigh on an awkward slide by Twins first baseman Chris Colabello to end the top of the fifth.
Asked if he thought it was a dirty play, Nunez said of the force play: “Yes, I think, but I don’t think he did it on purpose, he was just hustling.’’
Nunez received treatment after the game and believes he will be OK.
Jeter, of course, is coming back from a season of injuries and is saying his Long Goodbye this final season. The last thing the Yankees need is to see him get kicked in the thigh.
“I never expected he was going to hit me over there with two out, there was no reason,’’ Nunez said of Colabello’s slide. “I’ll be fine. They checked me out, gave me ice, we’ll see.’’
Colabello knew right away he made a mistake and apologized for the awkward slide. The Yankees thought the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Colabello may have lost count of the outs in the inning, but he said it was just a bad slide.
“I played with Eduardo a little bit in the Dominican this winter and we spoke before the game and said hello,’’ Colabello said. “I’m not the best feet first slider, I have arms and legs going everywhere and I’m still trying to figure it out after 30 years of playing baseball.
“My left leg got out. I thought he was going to go across the bag and he just tried to step over me and we hooked. When everybody was in an uproar, I came up right away, saying [in Spanish] ‘Sorry, my bad.’ I [later] made it a point to find him in dugout later too to make sure sure he was all right.’’
Acting Yankees manager Rob Thomson said, “It looked like it was a funny slide.’’ Asked if was glad it wasn’t Jeter out there, Thomson said ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to see anybody get hurt. It’s unfortunate, and it was a precaution to get Nuney out.’’
When told he will see Colabello again, Nunez smiled and said, “I hope not.’’
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire came up with the broken bats rocking chair as a retirement gift for Mariano Rivera and is thinking of doing “a Gold Glove rocking chair’’ for Jeter when the Yankees visit Minnesota the first week of July.
Gardenhire joked of the small market Twins: “I don’t know if our organization is going to go that far with cash. All I know is that Derek Jeter has been the main cog in sending my butt home in the playoffs. Early exits. Let’s just call him Early Exit Man. He’s led that team forever, one of the most professional baseball players I’ve ever seen.’’
Hank Steinbrenner, looking fit and trim, is hoping for big results from the Yankees and is thrilled with the signing and early work of Masahiro Tanaka.
“I love him,’’ Steinbrenner said of Tanaka, “and our pitching people love him. I just talked to [David] Cone [Thursday] about him and [David] Wells, and he’s impressing us. I like our pitching and obviously our hitting is better this year’’
The Yankees have found a niche for Dellin Betances. The big right-hander continues to impress in the bullpen and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings Friday. Betances has not surrendered a run this spring over eight innings. As a reliever, he appears not as anxious as he was as a starter.
Lefty Manny Banuelos made his second appearance of the spring and was charged with four runs over one-third of an inning. Command continues to be an issue for Banuelos, who walked two and surrendered two bloop hits as he makes the long return from Tommy John surgery. This will take time.
In an effort to have another weapon against right-handed hitters, righty David Phelps is working on a front-door slider this spring. With CC Sabathia developing a cutter, Yankees pitchers are trying to get more tools in their tool belt. If properly executed, Phelps said the slider will make the hitter “buckle.”
Third baseman Russ Canzler was a late scratch after hurting his left hip on a dive on Thursday.
Shortstop Brendan Ryan (back) ran the bases and swung the bat in the cage. He will take ground balls on the field Saturday.